Tax rate increased for Ruidoso water project

An owner of $300,000 home will pay $150 more in property tax

To pay for $3 million in general obligations bonds approved by voters to replace aging water lines within the village, Ruidoso councilors increased the property tax rate for 2014 by 1.5 mills.

"It's what we knew was coming," Mayor Tom Battin said during a council meeting last week.

Councilor Tim Coughlin asked for an example of what the increase will mean to a home owner.

One mill equates to $1 for each $1,000 of taxable property value. New Mexico taxes on one-third of market value. The levy will generate about $730,000 annually.

Village Finance Director Judi Starkovich said if someone owns a $300,000 home, it would be taxed on $100,000 and the 1.5 mills would equate to a $150 increase on the owners annual county tax bill, "as long as everyone else stays at the same tax rate." She also noted, "We've never had a debt service mill, but now we will."

"I just wanted to refresh the memory of the public as to what the increase was for, because they may have forgotten since March," Coughlin said. He offered the successful motion to adopt the resolution increasing the property tax rate by 1.5 mills.

In a related utility issue, councilors adopted a resolution commenting on the New Mexico Environment Department's July 7 Draft Total Maximum Daily Load document for the Sacramento Mountains, including the Rio Ruidoso. The resolution expresses the concern of the council about meeting the proposed 2.46 milligrams per liter for total nitrogen.

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"If it becomes necessary to purchase and utilize methanol for the treatment of total nitrogen in the wastewater (discharge into the river), the plant operator is concerned about explosivity and other dangers caused by methanol," Village Manager Debi Lee wrote. "Because the village also is challenged economically, any increased future costs attempting to achieve further reductions in nutrient levels in the plant effluent will create negative financial impact on the village."

In other business, councilors:

• approved a quit claim deed to Jerry D. Gilmore to resolve title issues for a portion of First Street that was vacated by the village within Carter's Park subdivision in 1972 and 1975.

• approved agreements with Molzen-Corbin & Associates, URS Corporation and Huitt-Zollars Inc. to provide on-call engineering services. A five-member team evaluated proposals by 11 firms and recommended the three listed. All have varied engineering capability and Molzen-Corbin will be looking at water reuse as one of its assignments.

• listened to Finance Director Judi Starkovich explain details of the fourth quarter resolution closing out the 2014 fiscal year budget, and approved the adjustments. She noted that in the general fund, officials budgeted $10.8 million in revenue and collected $10.4 million. The council budgeted $13 million for expenditures, but department directors held the line at slightly more than $11 million.

"Your departments were really watching budgets and they didn't overspend any of their departments and saved the village $2 million," she said.

Councilor Rafael Salas pointed out that a significant portion of that saved money occurred because many positions went unfilled during the year.

"That's some of it, but there also were (cuts in) overall operating expenses," Lee said. "But the bulk of the savings usually comes from personnel."

Starkovich said personnel accounted for $800,000, and between outlay and operations, "(department directors) save almost $1.1 million."

Because money is being set aside at $500,000 a year and old equipment is being auctioned, a replacement fund has grown and several pieces of fire-fighting equipment were purchased this year, Lee said. "The concept behind the fund is to let it grow and to build it as high as you can for years when you have to replace a street sweeper or fire truck and not repeat the situation of past years," Lee said. The goal is a schedule of replacement for each piece of equipment, she said.